Frederick Douglass Celebrates His Return to America a Free Man, and Reunion with His Family, While Telling of His Treatment During the Voyage

Frederick Douglass Celebrates His Return to America a Free Man, and Reunion with His Family, While Telling of His Treatment During the Voyage
"I caught Frederick [Jr.]in my arms, and took Lewis by the hand and pressed with all speed into the house, and relieved the anxious bosom of my Dear Anna, you must imagine my feelings, for I cannot express them. For once all public cares departed. Even the slave was forgotten, and my glad soul was thoroughly absorbed in grateful rapture.
"You are aware that I was subjected to proscription on board the Cambria. This was a mesirable attempt to propetiate the American slaveholders and their abettors. These would (truncated) have felt degraded to have been seated at the table with me, but not one of them but who would have been glad to have owned me as his slave. These wretched creatures could not indure me as a free man.…"
Due to significant threats, Douglass left America for England in 1845. While there, he travelled widely to speak about slavery. By 1847, Douglass was anxious to return despite the risks, but two English sisters negotiated with Douglass' owner and purchased his freedom.
Here, Douglass describes his return from England to Boston aboard Cunard's British Steamship Cambria, his joyous reunion with his wife and children, and the racism he faced during the voyage. Prior to boarding, treatment of Douglass by Cunard ticket agents had already sparked outrage in the United Kingdom, where such overt discrimination was more unusual. Reports such as this after his voyage furthered the reaction. Samuel Cunard issued a public apology.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS. Autograph Letter Signed to Sarah Hilditch of Wales, April 29, 1847, Lynn, Massachusetts. 4 pp., 5 x 7¾ in.
Complete Transcript[1]
Lynn Mass. U.S.
29th April 1847
My Dear Friend: I am at home, within the warm bosom of my beloved family and surrounded by the beloved ones of my heart, here I am at home sweet-sweet home. It is good to be here. Let us thank God, the giver of every good and perfect gift whose tender mercies are over all, and whose protecting goodness is extended to the humblest, so that even a sparrow may not fall to the ground without the notice of his eye.[2] All thanks to him I have been preserved, and am now enjoying the pleasures of home. After more than sixteen days of fierce conflict with adverse winds, boisterous waves, and the innumerable perils of the wide waste of waters, I am surrounded by the calm and tranquilizing influences of home. You will be glad to learn that I found my family all well All at home within and without was in a much better state than I expected to find. My Dear Boys Lewis and Frederick[3] have grown rapidly and have improved surpassingly Both knew me well, and when within a few rods of the house, both saw with eyes sparkling and dancing for very joy to meet me. I caught Frederick in my arms, and took Lewis by the hand and pressed with all speed into the house, and relieved the anxious bosom of my Dear Anna, you must imagine my feelings, for I cannot express them. "Kings might be blest, but I was glorious over all the ills of life victorious."[4] For once all public cares departed Even the slave was forgotten, and my glad soul was thoroughly absorbed in grateful rapture.
You are aware that I was subjected to proscription on board the Cambria. This was a mesirable attempt to propetiate the American slaveholders and their abettors. These would have felt degraded to have been seated at the table with me, but not one of them but who would have been glad to have owned me as his slave.
These wretched creatures could not indure me as a free man. Well, this miserable attempt, this mean servility on the part of the agents, after all was more of a blessing than a curse, for by it I was Placed beyond the social influence of a band of profane, uproarous, gambling tiplars. There was no affinity and their could have been no unity, even though I had been allowed to enter the saloon where they were. Their foul mouthed utterances interposed an impassable gulf between us. During the first few days of the voyage, I was weak enough to feel the degradation of my position[.] I felt a degree of loneliness. Had I been on the deck of an American steamer, I could have indured the proscription better. I was well provided for, and my apartments were as good as any on board, but I could not but feel I was there by compultion and not there by option. I was there as a slave, and not as a man. There I was in the midst of my fellow men children of a common father having the same faculties of body and soul yet forbid to eat with them because I have a skin not colored like their own. Thus solitary and alone, I could give myself up completely to the pleasure of contemplation. My spirit soared above the troubled waters, and dwelt with rapture and delight on the beloved friends who when a stranger and sojourner, opened to me their hands their homes their hearts. I read your Dear Letter, and thought on the nature of our friendship, and thanked heaven that I ever met you, and especially that I had ever been under your roof My Beloved Sarah. I am writing with the pen of speed. I have much to say but the time fails. Remember me Lovingly to my own Dear Sister Blanche, To Mr Clare and Mrs Clare, to Mr & Mrs Thornly, and to the kind friend who sent the ginger bread
Yours Always / Dear Sarah
Frederick Douglass
[2]Douglass here paraphrases several passages of the Bible, including James 1:17, Psalm 145:9, and Matthew 10:29.
[3]Lewis Henry Douglass (1840-1908) was six years old, and Frederick Douglass Jr. (1842-1892) was five.
[4]The poem "Tam O'Shanter, A Tale" by Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796) includes the lines, "Kings may be blest, but Tam was glorious, / O'er a' the ills o' life victorious!" (Inventory #: 27434)